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By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, December 4, 2018. Long before Malaya could be conceived of as a nation, politics on the peninsula had been defined by identity. We blame the British for starting it all — excessively no doubt, as an easy disclaimer to please our own conscience. They supposedly divided their … Continue reading →

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Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly editorial, December 2018E Mr Ong Jin Teong, in his admirable book Penang Heritage Book: Yesterday’s Recipes for Today’s Cook (Singapore: Landmark Books, 2010), noted forlornly that many of the home-cooked dishes that he and his generation grew up with are gradually disappearing along with ageing mothers and fathers, and uncles and aunties. … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial for Penang Monthly, November 2018. The basis for human liberty as we understand it today was laid with the advent of universal literacy. When reading and writing stopped being the sole right of royal scribes and religious leaders in a given society, and when vernacular languages – i.e. languages actually … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge, 26 October 2018 Toppling a regime that had been in power for 61 years was forbidding, to say the least. But Malaysia’s voters managed to pull it off at the ballot box on May 9 this year. And it was done without any accompanying subsequent incident of violence, … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly editorial, October 2018 In the age of speedy technological innovations, thinking up names for totally new things that are not created by Mother Nature but by this innovative ape we call Man has been an exciting process. The “telephone”, the “telegram” and the “television” are some easy cases in … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 30 September 2018; and in Penang Monthly, November 2018. One of the greatest challenges that faces a society coming out of a period of authoritarian rule and bad governance is the need to break away from looking to political initiatives and to politicians as the way to … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, for The Edge Malaysia, 1 September 2018 The intuitive conclusion drawn by many that a sea change took place when the government in Malaysia changed hands on May 9, 2018, has its merits. But as in all functioning democracies—and nowadays I count Malaysia among them—a majority vote generally means that almost … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng; Penang Monthly Editorial September, 2018 When we were cavemen, we lived in caves. And in the thousands of years since then, we have lived in everything else – from lean-tos to tents to log cabins to mud huts to houses and to condominiums. But in essence, we have remained the same. … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial in Penang Monthly, August 2018. It is often claimed that traditional Asian ways of teaching encourage students to memorise facts – so-called rote learning. The Western way, in contradistinction to this, it is claimed, is to teach children to think for themselves and to be critical – to be analytical. … Continue reading →

[Published as “Revisiting national history and the significance of GE14”, in The Edge, Malaysia, 30 July 2018]. By Ooi Kee Beng Whatever one’s politics may be, one has to admit that the origins of the Federation of Malaysia are complicated and are overlaps of compromises made over time to define a middle ground that was … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG Penang Monthly Editorial July, 2018 All things change. We can all agree on that. But what the density and swiftness of change in modern living have taught us is that there are harsh limits. We are not passive beings in the big scheme of things; and we are not unconditionally surviving. … Continue reading →

Malaysia’s general election effectively created a two-party system but the direction that UMNO takes may push parties that have splintered from the BN closer to Pakatan, says Penang Institute’s Ooi Kee Beng. By Ooi Kee Beng, in ChannelNewsAsia, 26 Jun 2018 06:34AM PENANG: The push for Malaysia to effectively become a two-party system has suddenly … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 24 June – 1 July, 2018. Republished in the “Picking on the Pas” column in Penang Monthly, August 2018. I know Malaysia is a tropical country, but let’s adopt a concept from temperate zones without having to be politically sensitive about it. We are in the midst … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, in the column, “Picking on the Past”, first printed in The Edge Malaysia, 27 May – 2 June, 2018. One can easily see how southern Southeast Asia, being largely maritime, ethnically very diverse and historically and geo-economically a collection of trade routes, in dividing itself into zealous and jealous nation states … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng Cover story in Penang Monthly, April 2018 The world may be stunned by the enormity of national scandals that have hit Malaysia and further dazed by the flippant official explanations that accompany them. Yet, the ruling BN remains expressly confident of victory in the coming elections. A high enough voter turnout, … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng Penang Monthly Editorial for April 2018 As the 14th general election draws near, the sense that Malaysia – and the whole Asia-Pacific region, for that matter – must now leap into a new era is growing stronger by the day. What seems common to advanced countries and developing countries alike is … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng Keynote speech given at the First ASEAN-Australia Education Dialogye, held at Hotel Equatorial, Penang, on 21-23 March 2018 Let me immediately say how honoured I am to be given this opportunity to state in 20 minutes some of the points about Southeast Asia’s development that I have been wanting to make … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Weekly, March 26, 2018 Humans will always go into conflicts. It is understandable, and even acceptable when these are due to irreconcilable differences in material interests, be these economic in nature or cultural. But more often than not, conflicts grow out of differences in the words used rather … Continue reading →

PODCAST on Wide Open Air Exchange: Political history and Malaysia, Dr Ooi Kee Beng – WOAE057 Dr Ooi explains some of the political history of Malaysia in relation to global history and international order and by critically analysing concepts of colonialism, nationalism and regionalism.

By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial, Penang Monthly March 2018. We should not forget that in the days before social media and news websites, the flow of information – basically through schools and through daily newspapers, television and radio stations – was highly centralised and easily controlled. Then came the 1990s, and the internet took over … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2018 A new era is upon us. This is no longer a controversial statement as far as I can gather. Indeed, it is a boring truism by now. A new page in our already speedy times has been turned, and it is … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial in Penang Monthly, February 2018 I assume anyone reading this has some time or other been one of those strange global creatures, disliked by some for their transient but disruptive presence and loved by others for their willingness to consume hastily and at inflated prices. I am talking about tourists. … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng This article first appeared as “Back to Reformasi” in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on January 29, 2018 – February 04, 2018. The return of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to the forefront of Malaysian politics at the age of 92 — 19 years after he sacked his deputy … Continue reading →

With the announcement that Mahathir is the opposition’s pick for prime minister should they win the next election, UMNO can expect a credible challenge on its home turf, says Penang Institute’s Dr Ooi Kee Beng. By Ooi Kee Beng, for Channel News Asia, 08 Jan 2018 KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s parliament will be dissolved sometime during … Continue reading →

OOI KEE BENG, Editorial for Penang Monthly, January, 2018. The ICT revolution has been taking place all my adult life: I bought my first home computer in 1990 when I was 35, my first mobile phone a decade later, and then my first smartphone about a decade after that. I am already into my fifth … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia, December 25-31, 2017. Reprinted in Penang Monthly, February 2018. Freedom cannot be understood apart from power. Like with all good dichotomies, it is never clear where the one turns into the other, or lives off the other. Today, it is a staple in management courses and sloganeering … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial, Penang Monthly, December, 2017 Yes, Penang has amazing food, be it fusion or hybrid, street or mall, traditional or accidental. And yes, it has amazing desserts too, like the Penang Road teochew chendol for one. Even the age-old ais kacang. Even the humble bebola ais. And don’t get me started … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, “This Week in Asia” in South China Morning Post, 6 December 2017. AFTER ALL the analysing done by pundits on Malaysia’s political dynamics in the post-Mahathir period, the country has now come to the strange point of being in a potential pre-Mahathir period. There is now the more-than-theoretical possibility that 92-year-old … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge Malaysia Weekly, November 27, 2017 – December 03, 2017. Strangely, moderation is not a subject that needs to be discussed and elaborated upon. It is the default position in any stable society. Instead, it is the nature of extremism — especially when it is happily growing within a … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, South China Morning Post, 16 November 2017. EXTREME WEATHER hits most places on Earth every now and then, and recently more than ever. But when freak storms appear with an intensity stronger and more devastating than living memory can recall, it is wise to conclude that we should not take blue … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, for The Edge Malaysia, 23 October 2017. A nation starts building itself long before the nation-state is established. There were Germans before Germany was established, and there were Italians before Italy was founded. There were definitely Malayans with a sense of being Malayans before Malaya was founded in 1957. Where the … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial in Penang Monthly, October, 2017 The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the communist experiment, and to the extent that the experiment was an application of Marxist ideas about class conflict as the driver of human development, the reunification of Germany that followed also meant for many … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, “Picking on the Past”, column in Penang Monthly, October 2017. (Published on Merdeka Day, 31 August 2017 in The Malaysian Insight). MALAYSIA is a special place for its natural geography and its human history, but most importantly of all, because of its demographic complexity. The peninsula is on the western receiving … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, “Picking on the Past”; Column in Penang Monthly, November 2017 (earlier version published in Forum, The Edge, Malaysia, 25 September 2017). Who am I? A simple question to ask oneself, and yet, no simple answer suggests itself. As long as the issue is about the singular person, it appears to be … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly, September 2017. Nurul Izzah, Daughter of the Reformasi, and of the jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, was pulled into politics as a young girl. Now 36 years old, she has become a major figure in Malaysian politics. The future looks bright for her, and many see her as a … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng. Editorial, Penang Monthly, September, 2017 Sixty years may have passed since Merdeka Day, but its historical significance remains something we continue to debate. Did Malaya fight to free itself from an implacable Britain? Did the British offer independence to its colonies in South-East Asia to suit its own ends? Was there … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge, 28 August 2017 THE ELECTIONS are coming, and the array of political parties facing each other across the widening divide can be stupefying for any observer newly arrived on the Malaysian scene. It would seem therefore that a quick look at the historical context in which some of … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial, Penang Monthly, August 2017 As with all agreements, consensus and contracts, a Constitution is a hunt for a balance – and a dynamic one at that, between the expressing on one hand of lofty national aspirations and ambitions, and on the other of compromises meant to be more binding than … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG For The Edge, Forum July 24, 2017 In the time of Brexit and the tenure of Trump; with the triumph of Putin and the threat of Kim, instead of thinking about how Globalisation is being reversed, we should take a longer perspective and think about how the global battle in modern … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial, PEnang Monthly, July 2017 It’s a complicated subject, this thing we call Economics. I don’t always know what it means. I remember once talking to Robert Kuok about it. His reply was (and I paraphrase from my vague memory of that conversation): “Economics is simply about living, isn’t it? As … Continue reading →

The immediate success of Singapore led to a grim court battle to decide who her actual founder was. That clash continues in this new and superbly researched book. BOOK REVIEW Book review: William Farquhar and Singapore: Stepping out of Raffles’ Shadow by Nadia H. Wright. Entrepot Publishing, 2017. By OOI KEE BENG The present always … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng The Edge Malaysia Weekly (June 26-July 02, 2017). You know that you are living in the 21st century when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is reach across the bed — not to caress your spouse, but to embrace your smartphone. After all, it has … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng Editorial, Penang Monthly, June, 2017 EDITORIAL Ecotourism sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? We do know that tourism brings benefits to a place, but we cannot deny the larger truth of what I like to call The Paradox of Observation – the more we look at something, the more we change … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng The Edge Malaysia Weekly (May 2017) Humans are land animals. The history of humanity has been largely played out on land. The sea was something that rivers emptied into, and much of seafaring had hugged coastlines. Lakes were simply smaller seas. Access to fresh water, though, is vital to human life. … Continue reading →

Review of “The ASEAN Miracle: A Catalyst for Peace” (Ridge Books, 2017) by Kishore Mahbubani and Jeffry Sng. In MEKONG REVIEW, May-July 2017, Volume 2, Number 3. By Ooi Kee Beng The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, founded on 8 August 1967, famously holds more than 1,000 meetings a year. Some say 1,400 would be … Continue reading →

Introduction

THIS SITE is where I deposit my writings. They are my contribution to the expansion of public discourses on society and life - especially in an Asia where public discussions are more often than not warped by nationalism, jingoism, statism, ethnocentrism, economism and self-orientalism.